History:

The national movement for women's suffrage began in the mid 1800s. The movement was making little progress because of opposition from the liquor industry. The liquor industry saw the linkages between the right to vote and abolition. In early 1900 Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the suffrage movement, returned from Europe and reorganized the national suffrage movement, which successfully lobbied Congress to past the 19th Amendment in 1920.

That same year Catt suggested the organization of the League of Women Voters to carry on the work of the suffrage movement by informing the 20 million new voters created by that women's suffrage amendment.From the beginning, the League was an activist, grassroots organization that believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then and is now a nonpartisan organization.

The Founding League officials felt that maintaining a nonpartisan status would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political by educating citizens about government and lobbying for social reform legislation.

"Naturally, this course has failed to please extremists of either brand," noted the League's first president, Maud Wood Park, in 1924. "The partisan radicals call the league conservative as through-going reactionaries are sure that it is radical or worse." This holds true even today, although to a lesser extent. But we are proud that the League is nonpartisan. Because of our status, we are trusted as an unbiased authentic representation of citizens' views and concerns.